Question about Wacom Tablet

Our IT guy at work just delivered me an early birthday present - a 9x12 Wacom Intuos. Sweet!

My question is - can I use it as a mouse pad when I'm just using my regular mouse? Is there any risk of damage of using my Mac mouse on the tablet surface?

No harm in that. It is meant to take varying pressures of a little stylus nub so broad sweeps of a mouse are fine. I thought an Intuos would come with the Wacom mouse as well (mine is over a dozen years old, so I forget... no worries about longevity with Wacom)

I doubt the tablet would damage an optical mouse in any way. The better question would be whether the mouse laser would be happy with the tablet surface, and whether the tablet would be in a good place for you ergonomically to use the mouse. Since I developed some tendenitis a number of years ago from an intense computing job I've used my keyboard an mouse at a lower-than-desktop level and it relieved the strains that were injuring me!

Lol - reading my post again, I realise how ambiguous it was. I meant, is there a risk of damaging the tablet?

(I don't care if I damage the mouse - if I damage this whole damn system, they might buy me a PC)

Damo77 wrote in post #5192753
Lol - reading my post again, I realise how ambiguous it was. I meant, is there a risk of damaging the tablet?

(I don't care if I damage the mouse - if I damage this whole damn system, they might buy me a PC)

Well, my tablet has a mouse that comes with it, and between that and scribbling on it I'd think the surface is pretty tough and could withstand a regular optical mouse. The Wacom mouse has some kind of felt on the bottom. If you're worried you could glue some felt to your Mac mouse, cut a hole out for the laser, and you should be good to go!

I've used a tablet for a period of time and I used the pen as the mouse.

Once you get used to the pen and tablet, you'll never go back to a mouse. I promise you that, I actually forsake my mouse in favor of my wacom tablet pen - it just feels a lot easier to use for me.

Toss the old optical mouse away, use the mouse that came with the tablet or the pen. There's a bit of a learning curve for the pen/tablet combo, but once you get it, you'll wonder what you did for image editing without that little combo. It really helps with your workflow!

I'll be the voice of opposition here. I love my tablet for photo work, but for day to day use, I much prefer my mouse to the tablet. My mouse will not operate on the tablet surface. The optics will not read. Not enough reflection I guess. So, I just put a mouse pad right on top of the tablet and it works great.

Aside from the fact that my tablet is in the middle of my desktop, I also am left handed but a right handed mouser. So, I use my pen with my left hand (and use it to "mouse" if I'm in PS and it fits) but my main mousing is still done with my right hand (and like I said earlier, my mouse and keyboard are in a more ergonomic location for me).

safehaven wrote in post #5196732
I'll be the voice of opposition here. I love my tablet for photo work, but for day to day use, I much prefer my mouse to the tablet.

I agree. This is not my first tablet - I had the same one at my old job. I'm pretty good with it, but the mouse still has a place.

Principally, I've only got the tablet because of RSI in my wrist - I try to use the tablet and mouse about 50/50 during the day, so my wrist gets time in various positions.

iv'e used a mouse on my Wacoms for the past 15 years without any ill effects to the tablet

Thank you, Robert, and everyone. My mind is at ease.

tbh, the first time i did, i was more worried about what the electro magnetic field was going to do to the CPU inside the mouse, than what the mouse would do to the tablet